Communism?

Question

why was communism such a threat to Americans during the 1950's. Do you think this fear was justified?

Answer 1

Only during the 1950s, buster ?
Just where have you been so far ? In planet Mars ?

Had not Gorbachev unwillingly disintegrated the Soviet Union, nowadays fidel would be knocking at the door of the White House and telling the president to beat it, because he was getting in charge

Hey, mr knowitall, where do you get your information ? From osama bin laden ?

Answer 2

I don't think communism was ever a great threat. The leaders of business and industry, and the super-rich, were always worried about it. We actually sent troops to fight in the Russian Revolution on the side of the Tsar because rich people and business leaders were afraid communism might become popular here if it was successful in Russia.

Politicians always have to have something to threaten us with if they don't get elected, something to promise to protect us from, and communism really served the purpose in the 50s. The treat of communism, real or not, justified enormous defense expenditures, and from the time of WWII on, we were on a continual war footing in the US, even at peace.

Defense was used as an excuse to do a lot of things we needed to do. We built the interstate highway system in the name of defense. We vaccinated kids and even provided school lunches to keep kids healthy so they could serve as cannon fodder in a war. And all the research and development that we've done at govt. expense was justified for defense, the development of such things as satellite communication, microprocessors, even the Internet. This was all made possible by making the USSR a bogeyman.

All through the post-war period we characterized any national leader we didn't like as a 'communist'. We drove Castro into the arms of the Soviet Union, and we used communism as an excuse to depose any leaders around the world who wouldn't play ball with us, from Mossadegh in Iran to Allende in Chile, pretending that we were only protecting ourselves from a world takeover by the USSR.

The CIA was formed after the war to gather intelligence but they got preoccupied with political 'dirty tricks'. They saw their job as to greatly exaggerate the strength and military might of the USSR, and when the USSR folded in the 1980s, nobody was more surprised than the CIA!

Answer 3

Because many countries had communist rebellions (even as close as Cuba and Mexico), and communism threatened American way of life - Capitalism. There was actually a small communistic movement in America in the 20s, but it didn't get off the ground. It was, however, enough to cause a decent scare. We have stood against communism since. During the cold war things escalated pretty high, when we started using military action to stop communist rebellions in Asia (Korea, Vietnam), and war with the Soviet Union seemed inevitable.

I think a lot of the fear was irrational, but not all of it. It was the change that was feared, that and the communist revolutions had a reputation of being quite violent.

Answer 4

It was a huge threat. Cuba, anyone? How about Hugo Chavez?
Senator McCarthy took it to an insane degree. The Witch Hunts were his own imagination run amok. "Have you no decency, Sir?" He ruined many lives and didn't accomplish a damn thing. Him and his buddy the EVIL Roy Cohn.
Did you know that Putin ran the KGB in the "Good Old Days" of the Soviet Union?
Have you paid attention to the Russians' recent activity, i.e. missile tests, fly overs, pushing the envelope...? It REMAINS a huge threat. Russia is overwhelmingly Communist and they want to run the World - nothing has really changed.
Thank God for Reagan and Thatcher. Had it not been for them, and Gorbachev realizing he was beaten - they would be HERE now and you'd be eating potato soup. (Beet soup?)
p.s. I'm not defending Thatcher re: the Coal Mining industry, although Al Gore is probably taking credit for THAT now, too.

Answer 5

It still is a threat. Take a look at Hillary Clinton and the other far left democrats.

By by capitalism.

Answer 6

Soviet Union was powerful, so was the U.S., but Soviet Union was starting to kick butt, so the U.S. got jealous and decided to make itself look better by making the Russians look like demons from hell...hense the cold war....:P yadda yadda yadda...

But on a serious note, the best answer was probably the first one :)